What is Your Life? (Funeral Eulogy for a Young Person)

TEXT: James 4:13-16

TOPIC: What is Your Life?

Pastor Bobby Earls, Eulogy Message for Josh Moses, September 25, 2003

Job said, “That which I feared the most has come upon me.” What was this man of sorrow talking about? Was he referring to the loss of his fortunes, his friends, his family? As a parent myself, I know exactly what Job meant.

It is so strange, so unnatural, so unexpected that a parent should have to bury their child. Job had to bury ten at one time. That is the reason he cried out in agony “that which I feared the most has come upon me.”

David, Linda, our hearts as parents, as friends, hurt with you. Our prayer today is that the Lord may use our words, His words, to comfort those who mourn, and challenge those who search for answers.

At times like these, there are always more questions than answers. I cannot answer the question today, “Why did Josh have to die?” I don’t know. Even if I thought I had an answer, it probably would not satisfy. We do know that the Bible tells us that we are born, we live, and then we die. There are no promises for any of us that we will live to see old age.

The Bible addresses this question for each of us in a book found near the back of the Bible called James. I am reading from the fourth chapter, beginning with verse 13 through 16.

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” [1]

What is your life? That’s a good question. That’s an important question for all of us today.

I remember Josh from years ago. He was only a little boy the first time I meet him. It was at Laurel Haven Baptist Church in the early Nineties. He must have been 6 or 7 years old. I remember him running all over the place at the after-church fellowship. Josh always had plenty of energy.

A short time later, Josh and his family came to our church at FBI. For the next few years we had the opportunity to get to know Josh far more personally. Josh always had an interest in spiritual things. He made a profession of faith at one of our revivals with Ken Freeman and I had the privilege of baptizing him the same day in which Linda was baptized. That seems so long ago now. Time moves so quickly.

The Bible says of our lives are brief. The Bible describes our life lived here on earth as a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. In Psalm 90, the Bible describes our short lives in comparison to the eternal nature of God this way.

For a thousand years in Your sight

Are like yesterday when it is past,

And like a watch in the night.

5 You carry them away like a flood;

They are like a sleep.

In the morning they are like grass which grows up:

6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up;

In the evening it is cut down and withers. [2]

The Bible says our life is brief. Even if we live eighty, ninety or a hundred years old, what is that to eternity that we will spend somewhere?

The Bible also says that our life is uncertain. In verse 14 of James 4, the Bible says, 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. Certainly, we have learned this from the untimely deaths of Linda and Bill.

The Bible tells us that it is appointed unto man once to die, then the judgment. We live. We die. We stand before the judgment seat of God. I am convinced that as Linda lived, and she died, that she now stands before God redeemed and accepted in the Beloved!

What about your life? When life is so uncertain, and none of us knows what tomorrow holds, are you prepared to stand before Almighty God? Have you been forgiven? Do you know that you have eternal life? The Bible says that in a life of uncertainty, we can know some things. One of the most important things that we all should know is that we have been forgiven, and that we have eternal life, that we will go to Heaven when we die. The Bible says, these things have I written unto you that you may know that you have eternal life.

Dear family, friends, all of us today, what is your life? It is but a vapor that soon vanishes away. It is uncertain. We don’t know about tomorrow.

Would you bow you head and close your eyes in prayer. The Bible says, Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. If you have never done that before, I want to give you an opportunity to do just that right now. I promise not to embarrass anyone by asking you to come to the altar to pray or even leave your seat. But I will ask you to pray a silent prayer to God who hears our very thoughts.

(Lead them in a prayer of salvation. Ask them to raise their hands if they prayed the prayer along with me. Ask them to share this good news with someone today and to go to church somewhere tomorrow.)

[1]The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982. [2]The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.